What does the future hold for AM events?

Events are key for the additive manufacturing sector – they allow AM players and users to discover and share about the latest trends and developments in 3D printing. Of course, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, 3D printing events have been heavily affected. TCT Asia, scheduled to take place in February this year, was one of the first events to be postponed. Following that announcement, a growing number of events were postponed, including two of the biggest events for the sector, the AMUG Conference, and Rapid + TCT.

In this context, three companies, SME, Link3D and 3Dnatives, came together to offer a virtual event for the additive manufacturing sector. DAMM2020, also known as the 26.2-hour Digital Additive Manufacturing Marathon, was a first for the industry. In times of social distancing, it appeared clear to us that people still needed a platform to share, connect and learn about AM. Therefore, the intention with DAMM2020 was to deliver exactly this to a global audience – basically, an event that would be free and accessible to anyone across multiple time zones.

DAMM2020, which took place on the 27th of April, surpassed expectations to say the least. Announced to take place 3 weeks prior to the event date, it’s 3,401 professionals from 1,458 different companies that registered to attend! The event consisted of more than 40 presentations from industry leaders, broken up by 30-minute networking sessions throughout. The aim was to provide dynamic and instructive information accessible from home, whilst retaining the networking opportunities that are key to physical events’ success.